AGP backward compatability

[grrryphon]

Will an AGP4x video card work in an old AGP1x slot?

I've been thinking about changing video card as the output connector on my old one seems a bit loose after a few years of active service, but I can only seem to find newer AGP4x cards for sale and I'm happy with the rest of the system (a PIII made sometime in 2000). If the old card dies, can I simply slot in a newer AGP4x card or will I need to junk the old box?

It'd be great if anyone could help, I read somewhere about backwards compatability between AGP2 and AGP4 but I can't find anything about AGP1 in the FAQs I've read. Sorry if I got the terminology wrong at any point!

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Grrryphon

 

[Dimension0]

i am having the same dilema. i have an ASUS p2b-ds with an AGP 1x slot. i noticed that Unreal Tournament 2003 is rather slow...so was looking to upgrade the video card.
but i am not sure if the game's performance is because of the current card (Creative Graphics Blaster RivaTNT) or because the system is just plain old outdated.

it's currently has dual PIII - 850Mhz and 1mb ram.

let me know if you find out wether AGP 4x or 8x can be used and if it offers any benefit?

thankyou

 

[Disorganise]

Check the following document:
http://www.intel.com/technology/agp/downloads/agp30_final_10.pdf

This contains the specs. Specifically looking at pages 39, 40 and 41 you'll find that the voltages have dropped from 3.3v to 1.5v between AGP1 (1x and 2x) and AGP2 (4x).
The slots themselves (on the motherboard) can be keyed (ie have a ridge in them) or universal, simlarly graphics cards can be keyed or universal.
Chances are your AGP slot is keyed to 3.3v. As a result you'll need to check that any g/c you buy is NOT keyed to 1.5v (ie, has no cut out where you ridge is) and is thus universal AGP.
From all this, I would suggest that if the card physically fits into your slot, it will work, downgrading itself to AGP 2x operation.

AGP itself provides a dedicated bus to the cpu instead of the shared pci of old. The speed differences 1x, 2x, 4x etc only really come into play when a texture cannot sit on the onboard RAM of the card and must 'spill' over into systems RAM (not good as this is slow - hence pumping the speed up). With 64Mb and even 128Mb of dedicated RAM on video cards nowadays, this spill over rarely, if ever, ocurrs.

As to your upgrade question - I had a TNT2 in my 1Ghz Athlon for quite a while before upgrading to a Geforce2 GTS. I haven't played UT2003 yet but Soldier Of Fortune 2 and Deus Ex made a big leap in the quality I could run and still get decent frame rates. I suspect a Geforce 4 or Radeon 9700 would do even better, but their power would only be truly unlocked with 2Ghz or more. (I'm in this dilema myself at present - I need a mobo to fix some issue I'm getting, but do I then aim for fast chip or a fast graphics card first..)

Hope this helps

 

[Crashman]

AGP 1.0 is actually AGP2x, and all ATI and nVidia cards are compatable.

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[Crashman]

AGP 1.0 is actually AGP2x, and all ATI and nVidia cards are compatable. You actually have a pretty strong system, you should try overclocking it!

Cards up to the GeForce2 GTS showed little to no gain increasing from AGP2x to AGP4x. Subsequent cards showed only small gains all the way up to the GeForce4TI series.

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[grrryphon]

Thanks for the info guys, it's looking as if my PC will live for a little while longer

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Grrryphon